Is BlackBerry still the best smart phone out?

There is no "BEST" smartphone, the only thing that matters is what fits your needs "BEST".

I read this whole thread, and it was quite entertaining. All the iPhone fans, touting that they can multitask, and that they have real push support... Screen resoloution came up, that's one I hadn't seen in a while, and there is even a strong Nokia presence! Certainly a great read... here's my take:

I'll focus on iPhone and BlackBerry, since this is the turn this thread has taken.

There is no doubt that the iPhone is a fantastic multimedia device. Their app store is certainly head an shoulders above the Android Market, BB Appworld, and Nokia Ovi store as far as the quantity of apps that are available for it. The UI runs smooth as butter, and is very straightforward (blessing and curse). Fantastic for web browsing, watching videos, etc. Here's my problem with the iPhone, it's a bandwith MONSTER, and if you want any sembelance of battery life you have to shut off almost every available service on your device. WiFi, Bluetooth, Push, no one I know with an iPhone leaves those services on, if they did their battery life would suck worse than it normally does. Apple even said the reason the iPhone doesn't multitask is because it would be a killer on battery life.
I've never heard of an iPhone that can multitask. If you're iPhone can run multiple 3rd party apps at the same time, I'd like to know how, and I'd like you to show me. Play Pandora radio for me and open up Facebook at the same time, keep that open too, and send me an e-mail, then go back to Pandora and change the song. It doesn't happen on the iPhone.
And also, it's not really push support if your phone is polling your e-mail server every 15, 30, or 45 minutes to see if you have messages. I think the term "Push" gets used too loosely now a days.
The other issue with the iPhone is it's too locked down. The UI on the iPhone is always going to look the way it does, there is no way to change it, unless you jailbreak it (which I laugh at every time I hear). You can ONLY download apps from the iTunes app store, which like I said before has a great selection of apps, but if it's not there you're SOL. With the iPhone you are only allowed to do only what's approved by daddy Apple, nothing more. And for the record, Jailbreaking a phone is not a valid arguement for allowing it to download apps from somewhere else. It's ridiculous to think that you should be forced to hack your device to make it useable, it's BS and a copout.

That doesn't mean that the BlackBerry isn't without fault. It's web browser is not very good, YouTube videos really don't look all that nice on my BB, even with the nice Tour screen (even with higher resoloution than the iPhone's). It's just not as good of a multimedia device as the iPhone, plain and simple. It's a fantastic messaging phone. I get real time delivery of my e-mail, real time delivery of Facebook notifications, I can multitask EVERY ONE of the applications on my device (even though I wouldn't it's nice to know that I can). I have push service all day long, Bluetooth and GPS on all day long, and when I go to bed at night I've got more than 50% of my battery left. Phone comes off the charger at 6:00am, goes on the charger at 11:00pm. Hands down, the BlackBerry OS, while dated compared to newer OS's, is highly efficient, and built for heavy use.

For me, BlackBerry is the perfect fit. I don't need a great web browser, the native BB browser does what I require. I want a great messaging device, period, and in my opinion BlackBerry has the best platform for messaging. If you love your Android, Palm, iPhone, then that's great, there's nothing wrong with that, it's obviously the BEST for you!

It's the best one if you like it the best. If you like something else better, then get something else. They are all great phone with different pros and cons for each. If you want a different phone, get it.

Certainly depends who you ask... but for me, DEFINITELY. While I do think RIM has made some pretty stupid decisions recently regarding the release of their devices, I do still feel they are innovative and offer ergonomics, functionality, and style that I do not get from other companies.

I think that the OS is definitely the best. I love the hardware. The phones have a classic beauty to them, especially the newer models and they are durable to. I always know what I'm going to get with a BlackBerry smartphone. I would definitely take a BlackBerry over any other device. I have had bad experiences with other smartphones, but never with my BlackBerry. I do, however, go through phases where I think that I would like a better multimedia experience. That's when I try out other devices and put my BlackBerry down, but the other devices lack so many of the BlackBerry functions that I have grown accustomed to that it makes it difficult for me to stay with them. I always come back to my bb.

I think that the OS is definitely the best. I love the hardware. The phones have a classic beauty to them, especially the newer models and they are durable to. I always know what I'm going to get with a BlackBerry smartphone. I would definitely take a BlackBerry over any other device. I have had bad experiences with other smartphones, but never with my BlackBerry. I do, however, go through phases where I think that I would like a better multimedia experience. That's when I try out other devices and put my BlackBerry down, but the other devices lack so many of the BlackBerry functions that I have grown accustomed to that it makes it difficult for me to stay with them. I always come back to my bb.

This is a slight twist in the topic, but I figure here is better than starting an entirely new thread.

Last night, on Jay Leno, Obama's Chief Advisor, was on as a guest. Leno showed a photo or two of him with the President and in them, Axelrod was show busy on his BB. I could not tell which model BB he uses, but Leno teased him "Are you ALWAYS using that thing?" Axelrod replied "yes, I am...I wear them out...they're durable but I ...well, wear them out." Any idea which phone he uses?

50%, or 20 Million BlackBerry subscribers are BES connected, the majority of them are using 8700's. They are everything David Axelrod or any Presidential aid and business executives need: secure and reliable, always on, communications.

Disabled or not, nothing with a lens is going to make it past security.

Besides, David Axelrod and the President are into b-ball, not b-breaker.

I aslo believe that people are suckered into going with other devices because of the spec sheets. On paper, BlackBerry devices do seem to be behind the times, but the user experience is top notch. I have moved from one device to the next in the last year because newer devices from other manufacturers would blow away any BlackBerry on paper. I couldn't keep those devices because the usability was so poor. What's the point of having a AMOLED 800x480 screen if you can't see anything when outdoors? What's the use of having awesome games and multimedia capabilities if your phone is going to die out midday? What's the point of having a virtual keyboard if you are going to make tons of mistakes and have to continually edit your messages? I had to learn these lessons the hard way because I too was one of those that believed RIM was slipping with innovation. I now realize that they are doing whatmost can't do. They are making a good and reliable product.

I aslo believe that people are suckered into going with other devices because of the spec sheets. On paper, BlackBerry devices do seem to be behind the times, but the user experience is top notch. I have moved from one device to the next in the last year because newer devices from other manufacturers would blow away any BlackBerry on paper. I couldn't keep those devices because the usability was so poor. What's the point of having a AMOLED 800x480 screen if you can't see anything when outdoors? What's the use of having awesome games and multimedia capabilities if your phone is going to die out midday? What's the point of having a virtual keyboard if you are going to make tons of mistakes and have to continually edit your messages? I had to learn these lessons the hard way because I too was one of those that believed RIM was slipping with innovation. I now realize that they are doing whatmost can't do. They are making a good and reliable product.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Most of these issues your highlighting sound like bias and personal problems.

Perhaps, but isn't that what most posts around here are? Personally, I concur with much of his post....I'm not impressed with AMOLED (though, I am anxious to see the new, Samsung SUPER AMOLED...jury is still out). I too had problems with the physical keys. That doesn't mean the screens or the keys "suck" as so many like to say, but just like the post you quoted, those are my opinions as they relate to my own experience. I cannot attest to battery life, but I agree 100% that what "looks good on paper" may not translate into a great user experience (that applies to ALL technology).

Originally Posted by CrackberryBrandon

Most of these issues your highlighting sound like bias and personal problems.

All I could say to this post is since people want different things, there is no way there will ever be a best smartphone. The only unbiased way to judge who is the best is by going off of each smartphones individual sales, although unfair (some will say) its the best way.then seperate by best business and best consumer, then you'll have the best

I also churned through enough great spec sheet devices before settling on the 9700. People assume that BB users don't know what's available and just stick to BlackBerries. Speed and efficiency are valid reasons to choose a phone.

LOL, boy have you opened a can of worms with that statement!! Not challenging you here (well, okay, perhaps a bit), but I'm not sure how I understand differentiating "best" with "most popluar." Certainly, I agree there has to be at least SOME element of "best" as I would find it hard to believe (though, I'm sure someone can point that out to me) how a truly crappy device can become popular.

This goes back to something I posted here earlier (or somewhere). Nobody can defend "best device" until they define best and, as you say, one would have to make a distinction between "business" and "consumer." I think there is a huge gray area though, where there is a crossover. As a self-employed businessman, I know I certainly use my phone that way. I did not want a serious business phone that had no "fun factor" to it, I wanted something that met my needs for basic, mobile business communication (plus, given my careeer in the visual media environment, a good display) as well as something that was a good time killer with a few decent games and a um, er, ahh..well, <gulp> decent web browsing experience (okay, we're not batting a 1000 in that department).

I think part of the problem that we see so many "x is best, y sucks" posts is that a huge percentage of those posts were not really well thought out (no surprise there), were written by individuals who may well be challenged by the very idea of transferring thoughts into the written word and, were written by young people who have yet to develop a solid sense of reasoning (sorry to the younger crowd, but there's a reason why 18 year olds are not usually CEO's of companies or even in the management echelon.) They certainly do, though, have expertise in the "fun arena" and even, to some extent, the technology arena.

Bottom line is, there is no "best" period. Too many variables, too many distsinctions, too many unsupported definitions, too many price points.

I agree that any manufacturer can wear the "Best" medal if they indeed have the most sales, but that only means that they have the "best sales rate" not that they're the "best phone."

I just finished spraying, for the fourth time, the weeds in my yard with the "Best" weed killer. FOUR TIMES! Somebody forgot to tell my weeds that this was the "best" weed killer!

Originally Posted by CrackberryBrandon

All I could say to this post is since people want different things, there is no way there will ever be a best smartphone. The only unbiased way to judge who is the best is by going off of each smartphones individual sales, although unfair (some will say) its the best way.then seperate by best business and best consumer, then you'll have the best

I know this is very trivial, but I tend to like the "Sent via BlackBerry" signature for Emails I send out from my phone. Looks more professional than "Sent via iPhone" or "Sent via Incredible"

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Yes, trivial - especially since you can change it to say whatever you want. "Sent via Blackberry" was one of the first things I changed. Why do the people I send messages to care if it comes from a Blackberry? I changed it to my standard sig, except added (mobile) so they know I am out.